The 2013 Red Cells Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar (GRC/GRS) is the next in a series of meetings that have been held every other year since 1979. This conference, with its rich history and engaged community, will assemble not only established investigators and the most promising new researchers, but also the next generation of trainees who are working on all aspects of erythroid cells, from the developmental control of its ontogeny, to cellular-morphogenic aspects of its unique membrane structure, to transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of its gene expression, to regulation of irn and heme metabolism, and to disorders following from variations in these normal processes. The Red Cells GRC continues to be the primary venue for presentation of the latest, cutting-edge basic science, novel insights into human disease, and innovations in methodology that it has covered throughout its history and for which it has become famous. We also proposed and were approved to hold a Red Cells GRS to foster trainee interactions and provide a forum of scientific exchange and career mentorship. These combined GRS/GRC meetings will attract an international coterie of researchers and provide a lively forum for active participation and discussion within intimate surroundings that facilitates interactions between senior and junior investigators, and between investigators that normally may not readily interact. The GRS and the GRC meetings will be held on July 6-7 and July 7-12, 2011, respectively, at Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire. We will gather trainees to interact with senior mentors at the GRS. We will also convene a total of 52 speakers with a total of approximately 140 participants for the GRC, inclusive with respect to gender, ethnicity and persons with disabilities The opportunities for informal gatherings at meals, and in the afternoons and evenings, provides an avenue for scientists from different disciplines to interact, promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration. By the nature of their subject matter, the Red Cells GRS and GRC remain fully relevant to enhancing the understanding of both the normal progression of erythroid cell maturation and the alterations that lead to its pathology.